


Detached

by mothsmenagerie



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Trans Male Character, also i tagged it post canon but, bear with me its unbetaed nonsense, dysphoria mention, takes place between 1 and 2 so, this can be read as platonic or romantic zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24786085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothsmenagerie/pseuds/mothsmenagerie
Summary: Remembering who he is is the hardest thing he's ever done.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 44





	Detached

**Author's Note:**

> hi yeah this may be garbly rambling but. ive been in a really bad rut and wanna write lupin iii fic but i have no ideas. this concept came to me nebulously at best so take it. idk what else to do with iT lol. it was gonna be longer and then my brain shut off

There's not a lot he remembers. About anything. Sure, there are, what… a dozen and a half clear memories, but they're only snapshots with no context. No story behind them. He can piece them together if he tries, but not everything fits right, like he's purchased a puzzle second and third and fourth-hand, and there are pieces missing, pieces that have fallen out of the decaying box and into the dirt never to be seen again, and he has to make up new pieces from scratch and hope they're right.

Even now.

Even though it's all over.

He gets lost in thought about it, trying to remember. Occasionally he'll be reminded of… something, but it's blurry, always is, and he loses it like you lose a dream by thinking about it too hard when you wake up.

It's frustrating. Demoralizing. He gets worked to tears and then he goes into the woods to hack at a tree with his sword like the bark is Ganon's flesh because it's _all his fault_ and Link _didn't_ _consent to this fate._

Zelda doesn't ask. Link's grateful for this. If she did he'd…

Break down. Cry. Bury his face in the crook of her neck like he's some mewling infant and not the Goddess' chosen hero. Not  _ Zelda's  _ chosen hero. And if he did that it'd be unfair, because she's suffered tenfold, and she had to hold back the Calamity for a hundred years while he took a goddamn  _ nap _ , and then woke up and fumbled about the land with no memories and made her wait.

He deserves to handle it on his own.

Zelda cuts her hair one day. Stands without ceremony, and pulls a dagger from her pack, and leaves. When she returns, beaming, golden, he panics. Deep down he knows it's her, but his eyes don't recognize her, and for a moment--

He sees his mother. He knows it's her. Just a brief flash, and her hair is a tad more brown, more unruly and flecked with dirt, and her eyes are a deep deep blue, but it's the same length, the same smile, the same spark of adventure, and then she's gone, and Link has to hold his head as he sucks in a pained breath through his teeth.

Zelda knows it's not that he dislikes the look. She's dropped the dagger and her hands are covering his own and she pressed her forehead to his and whispers prayers and soothing words and she smells like evergreen and sweet freshwater and it's almost too much--

So he pulls away. Averts his eyes. Holds her hands in his and murmurs an apology and stands and mounts his horse and rides off, not too far, he's not that negligent, but just enough that he has room to breathe. 

He tries to bring back his mother. She was wearing clothing of Rito design, and it was lightly snowing. He digs deeper. She worked in Tabantha half the year. Why is lost to him now, but… did she take him with her? Did he go up to visit? In the memory he feels very small. She must have taken him along.

That's it.

He lets out a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding. It's evening now. Zelda's hand rests first on his shoulder and when he relaxes into it she snakes her arms around his middle and holds him there.

Link feels fragile. Unworthy. He should be handling his issues on his own. He shouldn't even have these issues.

Zelda squeezes him. Presses a kiss to the nape of his neck. "Why are you doing this by yourself?" she whispers. It sounds sad. Gods. He made her feel this way.

Link stays silent for a moment. Balls his hands into fists. Loosens them. Swallows rough against the lump in his throat. Breathes too deep for the bindings on his chest to comfortably allow. Zelda knows this.

"You've been wearing those all day. Take a break."

He lets her undo them for him. He feels pathetic. Melancholy. Weak. She hands him a top just tight enough to flatten his chest, but loose enough that it doesn't hurt his back and ribs.

It's casual intimacy. That's what friends do. Because the dysphoria was established before the Calamity and never unlearned because it couldn't be and Zelda had helped with it numerous times over.

But this. This is different. This makes him feel awful because he's being selfish and cowardly and--

"Link." Zelda hands him an apple. He needs to go hunting again. They're running short on food. "Link, look at me." He does. His eyes feel heavy. She brushes his bangs out of his eyes and traces a scar on his brow and thumbs over the faint stubble on his jaw. "Can you let me help?"

"I don't want to burden you."

"You aren't. You won't." Zelda looks so sad, and Link feels like shit. "I know you're struggling with something. I know it hurts. But it also hurts me to watch and not do anything." She pulls out his hair tie and runs her fingers through his locks and he makes an awful, vulnerable noise in his throat and leans into her touch. "We're bound by fate. Not voluntarily, but we are, and we have to make it work. Which means we should fix things together. Work through things together. I help you, you help me. Will you let me help you?"

Link's stomach twists with guilt. The memory of his mother finally fades into obscurity and he feels hollow.

"Okay." 


End file.
